


time for a change

by diiiavolo



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-20 00:16:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19366468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diiiavolo/pseuds/diiiavolo
Summary: a kind stranger might just be who he needed all this time





	time for a change

**Author's Note:**

> this might just be my longest fic yeeowch!  
> also I feel like I should explain this reincarnation au more here. basically your entire previous life is very hazy, but once u learn a specific thing about someone from their past life, like their name, everything is like OHHH SO THATS WHERE I KNOW U FROM. anyways i love them.

Reiner Braun has just gotten off of work. He had a shit day, and nothing was helping. He worked at a business his mother had wanted him to work at in hopes that he would take it over one day and impress his father. Unfortunately for him, his father had already told him he didn’t want anything to do with his only son. He would never, couldn’t, tell his mom about that though. He simply tried to do his very best for her, even if it meant he had to sacrifice his own ultimate happiness.

His job was okay normally, but today had been awful. Reiner felt that everything that could go wrong did, and he just wanted to go home. However, his trip would be slowed down by a few minutes, as his car was in the shop. He would call Annie for a ride maybe, but he didn’t really want to burden her with his insignificant and petty problems, and he and Eren got in a fight earlier in the week, so he decided to go home the old fashioned way. He walked.

Alas, right as he started walking he caught a strong whiff of rain smell. _Wonderful_ , he thought. Once he got about a block away from work, it started drizzling, but soon the rain was a dreary downpour.

Reiner didn’t have an umbrella on him at all, since he did not know there would be rain today and simply planned to walk in the sunshine, or maybe call Annie for a ride if he were in a better mood. This fact made his mood all the worse, and to put the cherry on the top, he slipped and fell in the middle of a rainstorm.

Reiner nearly started crying right there on the ground where he kneeled. He felt like such a stupid failure, but right as the tears brimmed his eyes a very tall stranger with an umbrella quickly approached him.

“Hey, I saw your little tumble, are you alright?” The stranger asked, holding out his hand to Reiner.

Reiner looked up at him and nearly fell in love on the spot. The stranger had nice olive skin, green eyes, and dark raven hair that he brushed back neatly. He realized he had been staring for longer than he meant to and finally replied to the question. “Uh....yes! Of course! Thank you.”

Reiner took the strangers hand and noticed how slender it was, fitting perfectly in his. He shook off these feelings as the stranger smiled at him (that smile looked very familiar, but Reiner couldn’t quite put his finger on it). “May I walk you home? I have an umbrella and I’m not really planning on going anywhere, I just wanted to take a walk in the rain,” the stranger said.

“That would be nice, thank you,” Reiner said.

The two of them stood under the nice man’s umbrella, and they chatted about nonspecific topics, falling into it easily like old friends. Reiner found out a lot about the man’s life, like that he was traveling for his accounting job. His situation was very similar to Reiner’s, but instead of someone else holding him back from his dreams, he was holding himself back and picked a job that he was already very skilled at. He really wanted to be a detective or a lawyer, but did not want to go into something completely inexperienced.

Reiner felt so connected to the stranger that when they made it home, he didn’t want to leave......what was the man’s name?

“Hey, I’ve got a pen and paper inside,” Reiner said. “Can I get your number so we can talk some other time or...something?”

“You know, normally I wouldn’t accept offers like that, but I think I trust you enough,” the man teased.

They went inside and took off their soaking shoes, hanging up the man’s umbrella by the jackets. Reiner went to go find the writing utensils as the stranger sat in his living room, examining all the pictures hung up.

Reiner returned and handed the items to the man. “You must care about your mom a lot,” the man said as he wrote down his information. “It’s nice.”

Reiner floundered a bit, but regained his composure. “Yeah,” he replied. “She’s done a lot for me.”

The man smiled softly (Reiner still couldn’t put his finger on what was familiar about it) and handed him the paper.

Written in black ink, he had written his name neatly. What the name said made Reiner lose any composure he previously had.

“Bertholdt,” he breathed, as though he had been waiting his whole life to say the name that was written on the paper before him.

“Ah, I know, it’s kind of a mouth-full, but y- Is everything alright?”

Reiner looked up at the man standing before him with tears overflowing his eyes. “Bertholdt,” he repeated.

Bertholdt gave Reiner a strange look, he was still completely clueless. Reiner suddenly got very concerned that Bertholdt didn’t remember him just as much as he remembered Bertholdt, and started internally panicking.

“I think.....I’m going to take that little paper of yours and go...” Bertholdt said and began trying to escape Reiner’s house as quick as he came in.

“Wait a minute!” Reiner blurted out, grabbing Bertholdt by the arm. “It’s me, Reiner.”

Bertholdt’s expression went from extremely alarmed to starstruck in a split second. “I...is it really you? Reiner?” He asked, not believing his eyes or ears.

Reiner nodded desperately and everything fell into place for both of them. It was as if the universe had brought them together in their most desperate times, both of their lives being changed so drastically in such a small amount of time.

They hugged tightly and cried into each other’s shoulders for a moment. Reiner realized that his mom would come home at any minute, so they had to say goodbye early as he didn’t want his mother to meet his old friend just yet.

“I hope you know that we can’t go exactly back to where we were during that awful time,” Bertholdt said when they were saying their goodbyes. “But we can definitely get there again. I, and I’m sure Marcel, really, _really_ missed you, Reiner.”

Reiner trembled at the mention of his wonderful old friend, Marcel, but simply asked “maybe we can discuss it over coffee sometime? I know the best place in town, it’ll knock your socks off.”

Bertholdt giggled. “I would love that.”


End file.
